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T O P I C R E V I E W

SkyMan1958

A Ukrainian made Zenith-3SL rocket carrying a U.S. made Intelsat-27 satellite crashed soon after launch from the Sea Launch oceanic launching facility.

The Odyssey floating platform, owned by Sea Launch, has not been damaged, nor the remote flight control vessel six kilometers from the launch site.

The US Intelsat-27 spacecraft, built by Boeing Satellite Systems, was mounted onto a Zenit-3SL launch vehicle to be lifted off the ocean-based Odyssey platform at the Earth’s equator.

Space officials said the likely cause of the crash is an engine shutdown due to an incorrect launch trajectory. "Most likely due to high ocean waves, the rocket took a wrong trajectory right off start, that's where the system began sending auto-commands for a halt," Interfax reported, quoting a source in a space bureau.

Russian vice premier Dmitry Rogozin wrote on Twitter comment that an automatic command to stop the rocket’s engines was made 20 seconds into the launch.

The article from RT (Russian Television) includes a short video of the launch. The launch is at night, and the engine shutdown is ~ 20 seconds into flight.